Should the NHL make its nets bigger? Sidney Crosby says ... Plus, Jesse Spector looks at the streaking Capitals and the plight of two Pacific Division teams in Five Hole.

Jesse's weekly chat with SN's Tom van der Voort is above.

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Net zero

The more things change in hockey, one thing remains the same: the object is to put the puck in a net that is six feet wide and four feet high. The men who stand in front of that net, though, keep getting bigger.

The NHL can tell goaltenders to cut down the size of their pads, something the league’s general managers discussed at their meeting last week, but they can’t do anything about the size of the goalies themselves. Going by heights and weights listed on NHL.com, the average goaltender in 2013 is 6 feet, 1.75 inches and 197.6 pounds. That’s an increase of three-quarters of an inch and two and a half pounds since 2003-04. In the last half-century, the average goaltender has grown 3.3 inches — more than the size of a puck — and added 20 pounds.

The trend is only going to continue. Among the 48 goaltenders under the age of 30 who have played in the NHL this season, the average size is 6 feet, 1.98 inches and 198.7 pounds. Only four — Richard Bachman, Jhonas Enroth, Jaroslav Halak, and Anton Khudobin — are shorter than 6-0.

So, wouldn’t it make sense, especially for a league interested in juicing up offense, to adjust the nets accordingly? The NHL’s leading scorer does not think so.

“The nets are the size they’re gonna be. I don’t think you can punish goalies because they’re athletic and they’re 6-8,” Sidney Crosby said. “You don’t punish defensemen because they’re 6-8 and have long reach. A guy like (Zdeno) Chara doesn’t have to suffer because of that. I think the nets are okay the way they are. As long as we’re, as a league and as players, making sure everybody’s safe but making sure we put the best product on the ice, you look at the (goalie) equipment, that kind of thing, that’s always something we should look at every year. Everyone’s always looking to improve the game, and that will probably help with goal scoring.”

For historical continuity, it also makes sense to keep the nets the same size. Basketball hoops remain 10 feet off the ground even though players can jump higher all the time. A pitcher’s rubber has been 60 feet, 6 inches from home plate since 1893 even though the men on the mound get bigger and throw harder all the time.

Change is possible, though. Basketball added the three-point shot. Baseball lowered the mound in 1969. The size of the net in hockey might be sacrosanct, but the size of the rink is not. Giving skilled players more room to work the creative magic is another reason, on top of safety concerns, for the NHL to expand the ice surface to IIHF standards — if not for current arenas where modifications could prove costly and difficult, then for any new buildings that open.

Not that everyone will embrace change, no matter what it is.

“I honestly really hate when people fiddle with the game all the time,” Capitals forward Brooks Laich said. “I think the game is as fast and as exciting as it’s ever been, and I think there’s a lot of people that don’t play the game that are trying to make changes to it, and I really don’t understand that.”

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Capital improvement

The Washington Capitals, after a 2-8-1 start, remarkably find themselves back in the hunt for a playoff spot thanks to 13 wins in 22 games; Tuesday night’s 3-2 defeat to the New York Islanders snapped a three-game winning streak. With their next six games all against teams currently outside playoff position, the Capitals still have a decent chance to make up the four-point gap between themselves and eighth place, if not the seven-point deficit they face against the Winnipeg Jets in the Southeast Division.

Two key factors have contributed to the Capitals’ recent success. One is a return to health, as Tuesday night was Brooks Laich’s fifth game of the season and Mike Green’s fourth after missing three weeks. Each missed time with a groin injury. Then, there's the fact that the Capitals are playing for a new coach in Adam Oates whose style differs significantly from the bunker mentality employed by Dale Hunter at the end of last season.

“It’s both,” Oates said. “Obviously, Brooks and Mike are two guys that are a top-six forward and a top defenseman in the league. It’s great to get those guys back in the lineup. And the system, we’re playing good hockey and our guys know it. We’re doing every little thing better and with confidence. When you win, you get confidence. (Braden Holtby) has been solid and we’re in a good spot, got to keep it going.”

That includes Alex Ovechkin, whose five-game goal streak ended on Tuesday, although Washington's captain extended his point streak to six games, and has 22 points (12 goals, 10 assists) in his last 17 games. When Ovechkin scores, the Capitals are 10-3. And for those who buy the theory that he’s a coach killer, he and Oates are on the same page.

“I think it’s like 50-50,” Ovechkin told Sporting News. “Everybody healthy and everybody being ready is good, and when you learn the system, you understand what exactly the coach wants from you, and that’s the most important thing. I don’t think it’s all about me. My line, it doesn’t matter if it’s Jo-Jo (Marcus Johansson) or Backie (Nicklas Backstrom) or Ribs (Mike Ribeiro) or Brooksie, we have to play the same way (Oates) wants us to play. Our skill level and intensity have to be at the same level. That’s the most important thing, to keep doing the same thing.”

Ovechkin also has benefited from Oates “doing the same thing” lately with regard to his linemates. While the Capitals have been hot, Ovechkin has played almost exclusively with Backstrom and Johansson, and the continuity is paying dividends.

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Mail call

“Do you think there’s anything to these Jarome Iginla to Chicago rumors? What would the Hawks do with three of the top right wings in the league? Please don’t say move Patrick Kane back to center." — Mike

The Blackhawks have the requisite cap space to acquire Iginla, and are on his reported list of acceptable teams, but there has not been much word on Chicago’s level of interest. Even if they do want him, there are other teams, specifically the Bruins, who would seem a better fit from a positional standpoint. (UPDATE: Iginla was dealt to the Pittsburgh Penguins.) CSN Chicago’s Tracey Myers outlined the case against the Blackhawks trading for Iginla the other day, including addressing the notion of Kane moving back to center. Her entire argument was spot on.

But, for the sake of argument, say the Blackhawks do wind up trading for Iginla, and do so without surrendering any roster forwards. Then what? Iginla’s physical style isn’t the best fit with the Blackhawks’ top two lines anyway, so if he’s on that team, at the age of 35, his best fit is probably on the third line occupied for most of this season by Bryan Bickell, Andrew Shaw, and Viktor Stalberg. Competition to stay on that line would be a healthy thing, and the trickle-down effect would be less of Brandon Bollig down the stretch and during the playoffs, when his particular skill set is less useful anyway.

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Mail Call 2

“A simple question with probably a not so simple answer: What is wrong with the Coyotes (on the ice) and can it be fixed? I know they are dealing with injuries, but something seems off. Do you think Dave Tippett should be concerned, or is it something else?” — Melissa

Don’t underrate injuries. Because of them, Tippett’s most frequently used line — at 7.81 percent of 5-on-5 shifts for the season — has been Lauri Korpikoski, Boyd Gordon, and David Moss. Even the Philadelphia Flyers have been able to use their top line of Scott Hartnell, Claude Giroux, and Jakub Voracek 9.99 percent of the time, and Hartnell missed a whole month.

Throw in the fact that Mike Smith, now on injured reserve, has been a shadow of the goaltender he was last season, and a defense corps where everyone but Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Keith Yandle (granted, the Coyotes’ best blueliners) has missed at least five games, and you’ve got a recipe for trouble.

Then there’s the statistical background. Phoenix’s PDO — shooting percentage plus save percentage, with anything well over or under 1000 indicating good or bad luck — is 982, the fifth-lowest figure in the league. Some of that goes to Smith, some of it goes to having less-skilled forwards filling in for injured players, but the fact of the matter is that with the fourth-highest rate of offensive zone faceoffs in the NHL, and at 11th in the possession metric of Corsi percentage, the Coyotes should expect better than 13th place in the West. Still, with one-third of a shortened season left, there’s enough time to make up a four-point gap on the eighth-place San Jose Sharks.

The other thing is that the Coyotes have been brutal on the road, with three wins in 14 games. Only Colorado, at 2-10-3, has fared worse on its travels.

Should Tippett be concerned? Assuming that question is about his job security, the answer should be no. He took this team to a conference final last season, and putting him on the hot seat for 32 games in roster duress is hardly fair. If the Coyotes were foolish enough to fire one of the NHL’s best coaches — and Don Maloney is not a foolish general manager — Tippett would be out of work for about 20 minutes.

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Mail Call 3

“The Dallas Stars, new owner and all, continue to show zero interest in paying the going rate to hire a competent GM or an experienced coach. They prefer to give jobs to Nieuwendyk and Modano so they can have poster night promos and remind people how good things were 14 years ago. With that in mind, is there any chance they could just leave Dallas for parts unknown so I don’t have to look at this pathetic franchise any longer?” — Disgusted in Dallas

The Stars just got a new owner last year and are not yet halfway through their 30-year lease at the American Airlines Center, so there is no reason to believe that they are going anywhere, especially considering that per-game attendance is up 21.3 percent over last season even after post-lockout projections of doom for non-traditional markets.

As for the front office, while the idea of Joe Nieuwendyk and Mike Modano in the Roger Dorn mold from "Major League 2" is worth a chuckle, if the Stars were going for sentimentality, they never would have traded Brenden Morrow. Although there is some risk in acquiring a first-round pick whose team was willing to deal him only 21 months later in Joe Morrow, it beats watching your captain leave through free agency, and clearly the Dallas brain trust had made the decision to move in a new direction — rightly so, given Brenden Morrow’s career trajectory.

And not to say one way or the other whether Glen Gulutzan is the man to lead the Stars back to the Stanley Cup, but hiring an experienced coach is not a requirement. When Dallas did win the Cup in 1999, it was under Ken Hitchcock — in his first NHL head coaching job.